Nurses celebrate anniversary to explore innovations
Ghana joined the global community to celebrate the 2016 International Nurses Day on the theme, “Nurses and Midwives, a Force for Change: Improving Health System, Resilience through Safe Staffing.”
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The event in Accra brought together representatives of labour groups such as the Public Service Workers Union (PSWU), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and Health Service Workers Union (HSWU).
The annual event, which is held from May 6 to May 12, is celebrated to acknowledge the dedication, commitment and devotion to duty of nurses and midwives as part of their contribution to healthcare delivery across nations, and to celebrate the heroic services of Florence Nightingale, the Mother of Nursing, who lived from May 12, 1820 till August 13, 1910.
Student intake
Speaking at the launch of this year’s event, the Dean of the School of Nursing, University of Ghana, Dr Lydia Dziato, called on the Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) to take immediate steps to reduce the intake of students into nursing training institutions.
She observed that the high number of student intake into those institutions was a recipe for low skills development, that would affect safe health practices.
“I call on the NMC and the MoH to take a bold step to address this problem because the repercussions will be life threatening in the future,” she said.
Dr Dziato described the theme as relevant to the current demands of the modern day nurse and that the dynamics in the health delivery system across the world called for a crop of nurses who were well researched and knowledgeable about the profession.
“In the era of evidence-based practices, Ghanaian nurses and midwives are required to generate the appropriate knowledge that fits the socio-cultural context. Nursing research is the bedrock of enhancing nursing knowledge for efficient practice,” she said.
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Government policies
The President of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Mr Kwaku Asante-Krobea, said the government’s policy on employment restriction made it difficult for a greater number of trained nurses to put their skills into practice.
He reiterated the call on the government to retain the allowances for nursing trainees and midwives in order to support and motivate them to acquire the appropriate skills needed for healthcare delivery.
He also called for an overhaul of training and midwifery education by stopping the all certificate programmes and upgrading diploma-training programmes to degree status.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Health, Mr Alexander Segbefia, said efforts were being made to regulate the springing up of mushroom health training schools.
He said the health ministry had put in place measures to review placement of nurses to ensure that deprived communities had access to quality health professionals to deliver health care.
He observed that capacity building by health institutions was important to ensure that nurses performed well.